Aside from being a time when we gather with family and friends to count our blessings, Thanksgiving is — let’s face it — all about the food. Here are some suggestions for finding fresh and tasty ingredients at local markets, bakeries, and specialty shops.

Turkey

For those not keen on purchasing a shrink-wrapped turkey from a local supermarket chain, there are plenty of other options, including domestic, organic, free-range, pasture-raised, wild, or heritage turkeys from local farms — not to mention alternative birds such as capons (large, castrated male chickens), geese, and pheasants. Heritage varieties — ancestors of the commercially produced broad-breasted white turkeys — must be reproduced through natural mating, raised outdoors, and have a slow growth rate.

You can take a gander at the quality of the birds at Quattro’s Game Farm by visiting Quattro’s stand at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays. From the farm’s Manhattan satellite, you can place an order, leave a deposit, and pick up your fresh bird on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This year, options include juicy plump domestic New Holland whites (12–30 pounds), complex and flavorful heritage Bourbon reds (8–14 pounds), or lean and deliciously gamey eastern wild turkeys (6–11 pounds, $5.39 a pound). Size as well as taste is definitely a consideration when deciding what type of bird to order. Consider not only how many people are coming to dinner (figure three-quarters of a pound a person), but also how many turkey sandwiches you hope to eat over the Thanksgiving weekend.

For retail bird shopping, Gramercy Meat Market offers top-quality turkeys including free-range all-natural ($3.99 a pound), organic ($4.99 a pound), kosher organic ($5.99 a pound), and heritage ($7.99) turkeys — and delivers free of charge in Manhattan. Another great source for all kinds of birds, including organic, wild, and heritage turkeys, is D’Artagnan, available for purchase at dartagnan.com, or at Balducci’s, Dean & DeLuca, D’Agostino’s, and Food Emporium, which have multiple city locations. The butcher’s admonition to order ahead isn’t just a marketing ploy. To get your choice of bird, order in advance.

Pie

If you’re not going to make your own, you’ll want to order your pie in advance, too. For the quintessential Thanksgiving apple pie, nothing — and in most cases, not even homemade — can beat the Little Pie Company of the Big Apple’s old-fashioned apple pie, a towering mound of Golden Delicious apples, tender, sweet slices that keep their shape when baked, covered with a savory, crisp, and flaky crust ($24 for a 10-inch pie). The to-die-for sour cream apple-walnut pie is topped with a thick coating of cinnamon sugar and walnuts ($26 for a 10-inch pie).

Meanwhile, at Baked — a quaint bakery in Red Hook — the pie offerings capture the spirit of the American holiday. In honor of Thanksgiving, Baked offers three special 9-inch pies: autumn apple ($25), which contains farmers market apples and autumnal spices surrounded by a thin, double-layered crisp crust; pumpkin spice ($24), a creamy and earthy creation with an oatmeal crust, and the Southern-style chocolate bourbon pecan pie ($25). Orders must be placed before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 20. Delivery to some locations is available for a fee.

Cranberry Sauce

It’s not crucial to buy it ahead, but cranberry sauce is one of those items you can get out of the way in advance to make Thanksgiving preparations less hectic. It’s easy to make your own by cooking up a bag of berries with sugar, orange peel, and a little cider vinegar, but there are some outstanding alternatives available at local farmers markets.

Breezy Hill Orchard and Cider Mill, which also has a stand at the Union Square market, is justly famous for its apples, pears, and ciders, but also sells its own cranberry chutney ($4 for 8 ounces; $8 for 16 ounces), tangy pear salsa ($3.50 for 8 ounces; $7 for 16 ounces), and apple-corn sauce ($4 for 8 ounces; $8 for 16 ounces) — all of which are fantastic accompaniments to turkey. Beth’s Farm Kitchen preserves and jams are sold in farmers markets and stores throughout the city. While Saturday, not Wednesday, is Beth’s day at Union Square, representatives will also be there the day before Thanksgiving. Beth’s sweet, tangy, and spicy chutneys will add an extra kick and excitement to the holiday meal.

Peach or rhubarb chutney are excellent for glazing your bird, and cranberry-horseradish, cranberry-lime, or cranberry-chili chutneys are wonderful on the side ($8 for 8 ounces).

Vegetables

For the best of the harvest, shop at your local farmers market for the freshest vegetables. Ideally, if time permits, you’ll troll the entire market and see what looks the freshest before buying, but for the best overall and most dependable selection of parsnips, potatoes, greens, butternut and acorn squashes, onions, and shallots, head to Paffenroth Gardens’s stall at the Union Square market.

For Brussels sprouts, on the stalk ($3 a stalk) or off ($3 a pound), look for dark green, tight leaves with flecks of white on the baby cabbage heads. On the stalk, you’ll find a variety of sizes. If you want a uniform size, buy the loose ones and pick out larger heads if you plan to shred them. (Discussions about how to cook them are inevitable around the bins.)

Beer

Wine writers can scratch their heads and sigh trying to come up with suggestions of which red or white goes best with turkey, but a more appropriate choice for this holiday — and what the pilgrims more likely drank — is beer. New York State has some superb, refined food-friendly offerings: Look for a range of styles from Ommegang, Brooklyn Brewery, and Blue Point Brewing Company (including some varieties on tap and sold in half-gallon portable glass growlers) at Whole Foods Market’s Bowery Beer Room or at Fairway markets, where there is also an impressive and extensive selection.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Dried Cherry Butter

The chef de cuisine at Back Forty (190 Avenue B at 12th Street, 212-388-1990), Shanna Pacifico, shared this Thanksgiving recipe with us. The dish is now on the menu at the recently opened East Village restaurant.

2 pounds small Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound butter (two sticks)
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 clove of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper

1.) Leave butter out to soften and reach room temperature, then place in a bowl. Add the lemon zest, garlic, parsley, and dried cherries, and season to taste with salt and black pepper.

2.) Using a rubber spatula, mix the butter compound together until the ingredients are distributed evenly. Place the butter on a large piece of plastic wrap, shape butter into a log, wrap, and transfer into a plastic container.

3.) Place the mixture in the freezer until ready to use. (The compound can be made days in advance.)

4.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

5.) Place the Brussels sprouts in a large bowl, sprinkle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss well.

6.) Lay Brussels sprouts on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then roast for approximately 15 minutes, or until sprouts start to brown and reach a dark gold color. After about seven minutes, rotate the tray and move the Brussels sprouts around to ensure that they brown evenly.

7.) When done, transfer them to a serving platter. Take the butter out of the freezer. Using a vegetable peeler, shave as much of the butter compound as you’d like onto the Brussels sprouts, and serve. (Return any remaining compound butter to the freezer for future use on biscuits and vegetables such as roasted carrots and parsnips.)

Serves 8

Where To Shop

Baked

359 Van Brunt St., between Dikeman and Wolcott streets, Brooklyn 718-222-0345 bakednyc.com

Beth’s Farm Kitchen

Stuyvesant Falls, N.Y. (Stand at the Union Square Greenmarket) 800-331-5267 bethsfarmkitchen.com

Breezy Hill Orchard and Cider Mill

Staatsburg, N.Y. (Stand at the Union Square Greenmarket) 845-266-3979 hudsonvalleycider.com

D’Artagnan

Available at Balducci’s, Dean & Deluca, D’Agostino’s, and Food Emporium locations dartagnan.com

Gramercy Meat Market

383 Second Ave. at 22nd Street 212-481-1114

Paffenroth Gardens

Warwick, N.Y. (Stand at the Union Square Greenmarket) 845-258-2539

Quattro’s Game Farm

Pleasant Valley, N.Y. (Stand at the Union Square Greenmarket) 845-635-8202

Little Pie Company of the Big Apple

407 W. 14th St., between Ninth and Tenth avenues 212-414-2324

424 W. 43rd St., between Ninth and Tenth avenues 212-736-4780 Grand Central Terminal Lower Dining Concourse 212-983-3538 littlepiecompany.com

Whole Foods Market Bowery Beer Room

95 E. Houston St., between Bowery and Chrystie streets 212-420-1320